I actually like Wish You Were Here more than Animals RBA, and possibly even more than Dark Side. The music aspect anyways, I will say that Animals is probably the most unique concept of any of them lyrics wise. Probably because of the sheer amount of substance underneath the surface of the lyrics.

'Wish You Were Here' is definitely great. For me, it doesn't flow as well as 'Animals' from beginning to end. 'Have a Cigar' is a great song, but it seems just sort of thrown in there and doesn't make a ton of sense with the rest of the album, imo.

But, the various parts of 'Shine On' alone make it a great concept album.

What I love so much about 'Animals' is the depth of the lyrics and the depth of the jams. It is mostly an instrumental album and I can't imagine the amount of time they must have spent in the studio perfecting these complex instrumental sequences.

There is a point in 'Dogs'... at around the 4:50 mark of this video in which the music changes in structure and a lone acoustic guitar leads into a grimy, raw solo that is Gilmour's best, imo.

The album is filled with peaks and valleys just like that one that make it completely unique. Then again, DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Meddle (another underrated album), etc. all take different but conceptually unique approaches. I guess, at the end of the day, Floyd is and will always be the king of the concept album.

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Originally Posted by RidonKs

I actually caught a Floyd cover band a few weeks ago, and the set they played consisted of the entire Animals album, which was pretty incredible. It wasn't a really fancy show, certainly no Australian Pink Floyd, but still really really well done. The show was in a pretty small bar too, so I was only a few feet from the stage. Fantastic experience.

That is cool. I've always wanted to see a really great Floyd cover band. If they did justice to the entire 'Animals' album, they must have been pretty good because that is the most complex music that Floyd has ever made and it is very difficult to recapture live (I've tried... and probably failed).

I did get to see Roger Waters in the early-00s and his show was incredible. Obviously, it isn't going to be the same as seeing the entire band, but Roger has a stage presence that I think was sorely lacking when the other guys toured without him. Plus, just knowing that this is the man that wrote nearly every song and was the real brains behind the band... He has an aura on stage that is hard to describe.

'Wish You Were Here' is definitely great. For me, it doesn't flow as well as 'Animals' from beginning to end. 'Have a Cigar' is a great song, but it seems just sort of thrown in there and doesn't make a ton of sense with the rest of the album, imo.

I'd have to agree. As a cohesive unit, and again as a lyrical concept album, Animals is probably superior. Individually, I go with Wish You Were Here though. And yeah, I've thought the same thing about Have a Cigar, it's too different musically to be sandwiched between Welcome to the Machine (underappreciated imo) and Wish You Were Here.

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There is a point in 'Dogs'... at around the 4:50 mark of this video in which the music changes in structure and a lone acoustic guitar leads into a grimy, raw solo that is Gilmour's best, imo.

lol, knew exactly what you were talking about before even clicking the link. Great stuff.

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If they did justice to the entire 'Animals' album, they must have been pretty good because that is the most complex music that Floyd has ever made and it is very difficult to recapture live (I've tried... and probably failed).

Well, to say they did it justice would be difficult. It sounded f-ing awesome to me, but then again, I was fairly blitzed for the show. I had a nice buzz going to start the concert, and didn't go 5 minutes without sipping on a beer for the entire 2 hours. Of course that just let me groove to the music even more, so like I said, it sounded pretty amazing.

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Then again, DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Meddle (another underrated album)

I haven't listened to Meddle. I've been going through the discog lately, but I haven't gotten to that one quite yet. I wasn't overly impressed with Obscured By Clouds, it came off as pretty erratic and all over the place for a PF album. I never really got a good feel for any of the songs. Then again it's Pink Floyd, so there's probably a good chance that's exactly what they were going for. lol

I haven't listened to Meddle. I've been going through the discog lately, but I haven't gotten to that one quite yet. I wasn't overly impressed with Obscured By Clouds, it came off as pretty erratic and all over the place for a PF album. I never really got a good feel for any of the songs. Then again it's Pink Floyd, so there's probably a good chance that's exactly what they were going for. lol

Ummagumma and A Saucerful of Secrets are both pretty wild though.

Meddle, to me, is really the beginning of the sound that Pink Floyd became known for. Earlier albums like A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, and Atom Heart Mother are interesting, but they aren't the kind of records that I would go back and listen to over and over again.

Meddle was the start of the Roger Waters sound and he began to really shine as a song writer on this album. It isn't as complete as Animals or DSOTM, but there are some absolute classics on there (and only six tracks on the album, in total).

It starts with 'One of These Days' into 'Pillow of Winds,' which is an absolutely great way to start an album. These are two of my favorite Floyd songs of all-time (especially Pillow of Winds).

What comes next is, imo, the most underrated Floyd song ever made. Fearless is just an absolute classic and it really doesn't sound like any other acoustic Floyd songs.

You can tell the band was just finding their way, as the next two tracks on the album are not 'great' and just sort of serve as good filler. But, Meddle closes with the epic 'Echoes,' which the band wrote in tribute to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is 30 minutes of psychedelic grooves that actually matches perfectly with the last section of 2001 (Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite).

Back in my partying days, there was no better music for a psychedelic trip than Meddle and, specifically, 'Echoes.' It is on par in 'epicness' with Shine On, imo.... especially if you have some rolls handy.... or at least a little herb.

Meddle, to me, is really the beginning of the sound that Pink Floyd became known for. Earlier albums like A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, and Atom Heart Mother are interesting, but they aren't the kind of records that I would go back and listen to over and over again.

Meddle was the start of the Roger Waters sound and he began to really shine as a song writer on this album. It isn't as complete as Animals or DSOTM, but there are some absolute classics on there (and only six tracks on the album, in total).

Saucerful you can tell is just the beginning for the band (still great music though), but I found Ummagumma pretty progressive overall. The second side (studio) is nicely chopped up into its own sections, with the different members each writing their own portion of the album. Obviously Gilmour and Waters' sections stand out the most. The Narrow Way pts 1 + 3 are absolutely gorgeous, and 2 is still very recognizable. Love the minimalist acoustic Waters brings for his parts too. Overall I still love it. You get a great feel for each individual member of the band.

Haven't listened to AHM yet, but I've heard it's even better.

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You can tell the band was just finding their way, as the next two tracks on the album are not 'great' and just sort of serve as good filler. But, Meddle closes with the epic 'Echoes,' which the band wrote in tribute to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is 30 minutes of psychedelic grooves that actually matches perfectly with the last section of 2001 (Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite).

Echoes is the one song from Meddle that I have listened to, although only a few times. And it's pretty effing heavy (and long), so a few listens isn't really going to cut it. I've heard about the 2001 deal though, although I didn't realize it was actually made for the film. I thought a bunch of hippies just decided to get high, watch them at the same time, and make some random connections that don't actually exist unless you're really searching for them. I'm definitely going to make sure to check out Meddle next though.

Speaking of 2001 though, I'll be seeing it for the first time in theatres in about 2 weeks. My local theater put out a fantastic schedule for this month which includes a classic matinee every Sunday. That means The Wild Bunch, Lawrence of Arabia, 2001, and The Deer Hunter this month. No way I'm missing the latter two. I figure if there's ever one time to see something as epic as 2001, it's on a giant screen in a dark room. I'm pretty pumped.

i was really into jam bands for a while so most of the best transitions I have heard were in live shows.

Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors actually would do this badass thing where one band would open and instead of a set break members frmo the other band would slowly come out on stage and they would eventually go into each others songs, switch over to the second bands stuff and the first band members would gradually go off. They were called Spinning Traveler shows.

Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors actually would do this badass thing where one band would open and instead of a set break members frmo the other band would slowly come out on stage and they would eventually go into each others songs, switch over to the second bands stuff and the first band members would gradually go off. They were called Spinning Traveler shows.

Sounds wild. Blues Traveler are great man, John Popper is a f-ing machine on that harmonica. I've watched a ton of Youtube videos of his live solos, god I'd love to go to one of his shows. He's incredible.

Guess Who are awesome btw. My momma's an enormous fan, as she was just growing up in Winnipeg as they were starting up.